D

espite the United Development Party (PPP) declaring allegiance to the coalition of president-elect Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, it might mean nothing as the party'€™s internal conflicts remain unresolved.

During a muktamar (national congress) in Surabaya, East Java, held by the faction led by PPP chairman Muhammad Romahurmuziy, the party decided to throw its support behind Jokowi.

'€œIf the Democratic Party said they would be a balancing power outside the government, we'€™re the balancing power inside the government,'€ PPP deputy chairman Suharso Monoarfa said after the declaration on Friday.

He added that the Jokowi coalition had been informed of the decision.

As the party had joined the coalition, it would support the coalition'€™s position on all issues, including the election of regional heads.

Jokowi and his coalition had offered long-term partnership with the possibility of ministerial appointments, but on the condition that the party declared its support before the president-elect'€™s inauguration and ahead of his Cabinet announcement.

When asked whether Jokowi had allocated ministerial slots to the party for joining the coalition, Romahurmuziy, who was elected during the congress on Thursday, said that so far there had been no specific offers from the president-elect.

'€œ[Appointing] ministers is the prerogative of the president, therefore the PPP is not in the position to demand anything,'€ he said.

Following the declaration, Romahurmuziy closed the congress with a speech calling for all party members to unite following a rift that had split the party into two rival factions: his faction and another led by former PPP chairman Suryadharma Ali, who has been named a suspect in a graft case.

The party'€™s sharia board and mahkamah (internal council) had been trying to reconcile the two factions by ordering them to jointly conduct a muktamar, with the former planning to take matters into its own hands by conducting another muktamar should the reconciliation attempt fail.

Suryadharma plans to hold a separate muktamar in Jakarta on Oct. 23.

While the Romahurmuziy faction has decided to jump ship, the validity of the move is questioned as the mahkamah and the party'€™s sharia board have declared both congresses invalid and aired plans to conduct its own congress as a compromise.

Despite being deemed illegitimate by the sharia board, the Romahurmuziy faction insisted on the legitimacy of its congress, saying the sharia board had no authority to hold its own muktamar and that the validity of a muktamar was not determined by board approval.

Suharso said that the sharia board was not like the religious councils in other Islamic-based parties, like the Prosperous Justice Party'€™s (PKS) majelis syuro, which was the highest lawmaking body in the party.

'€œWe don'€™t employ the syuro council system, our board is a sharia one.'€

Suharso also accused Suryadharma of manipulating sharia board chief Maimun Zubair so that the latter would declare the muktamar in Surabaya invalid.

Likewise, sharia board deputy chief Fahrurrozi Ishaq said the board was not powerful enough to dismiss the legitimacy of a muktamar on its own without holding a joint meeting involving both rival factions.

'€œThe sharia board gives advice, it does not make decisions [on crucial matters],'€ he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.